How Healthy is the State of Indiana High School Cross Country? Part I
In this three part series, we will look at the team participation numbers of high school cross country in Indiana, the possible causes of less full teams being fielded, and then what are some potential aides that can be put in place to help bring those numbers back up in our great sport.
Despite a great fall by both Indiana's top male and female runners, the number of full teams fielding a scoring team for the Sectional was lower again in 2021. Is Indiana actually facing a numbers problem even though we are in some ways as strong as we have ever looked at the front of our pack? The numbers tell a story that is worth exploring.
Note: The numbers presented in the article are compiled by the author and absolutely could be off by a team, but the point will remain the same- the percent of schools not fielding a scoring team is alarming. One former high school coach commented when reading the data, "Wow. Wow. Wow"
In 2021, there were approximately 385 teams assigned to an IHSAA Sectional. On the boys, 75 teams did not field at least five runners to score as a team. That represents just over 19% of the eligible teams.
The girls' percentage was even more startling. Around 134 teams did not field five scoring girls for the Sectional. This represents almost 35% of assigned teams.
The IHSAA has become increasing concerned that too many teams are qualifying for the Regional. The Sectional, in some cases where only five schools field an entire team, is no longer serving a purpose of narrowing down the field enough. The Sectional should, by the numbers of our state, weed out about 58% of the teams from the Sectional to the Regional. This does not include individuals qualifying, we are focused on teams for the sake of this article.
With that number in mind, 52% of the boys teams qualified for the Regional instead of around 42%. The girls numbers are again much larger. Around 63% of the teams who fielded a scoring team qualified for the next round.
We have not even explored the fact that there were many teams who just had five or six runners, not the desired "full team" of seven.
The IHSAA has explored this lack of competitiveness at the Sectional level. One potential recommendation is the to change the format of the tournament from four rounds to three rounds to balance out the percent of teams qualifying for the next round. While are can debate the merits of a three or four round tournament, I think coaches would prefer to do this for a better reason than lack of teams being fielded at the high school Sectional.
In Part II, we will explore some of the root causes of this problem.